SCS cream lathering problems, HELP

[Emmett]

I got some of Sue's Bulgarian Lavender cream and I am having a heck of time getting a decent lather. I've done about a dozen practice bowls over three days (yes I've been bored) and it just is not working. Either it's dry and disintegrates on my arm or it's watery with loose foam and drips down my arm. I know this stuff has quite a following. Anyone care to help a guy out? Anyone willing to trade me for a puck of the soap? The sample soap I got with my order lathers up fine. Maybe I'd have better luck with that version of it.

 

[The Nid Hog]

The sandalwood that i have lathers up just fine. I'm a face latherer, so I can only tell you how I do it. I soak my brush in warm water while I'm showering. I shake out the brush then put a blob of cream into the center of my knot. Then I just start lathering up on my face. I add water little by little, just lightly touching the tip of the brush on the surface of the water in my sink. No tricks, no unusual measures necessary.

 

[Emmett]

*sigh* Maybe I'll try lathering on my arm then to figure it out. My face can't take the amount of exfoliation required for multiple test lathers. I've never had a water issue before, but maybe that's got something to do with it. I'll try some batches with distilled.

 

[StillShaving]

I have SCS Lime Rose cream and face lather like The Nid Hog. I swirl a wet brush in the tub to amply load the tips and then slowly add water as I build lather on my face. I find that it does not lather up with as much volume as creams such as DR Harris or CO Bigelow but it is quite slick and protecting. And the resulting shave is very good. One has to be careful not to add too much water as it can thin out, but even when that happens it is still effective. I really like the Lime Rose fragrance, it is one of my favorites, but unfortunately I don't think Sue offers it now.

 

[Ru4scuba?]

Email Sue and she'll give you step by step instructions...she's a top notch lady and vendor!

 

[Bobtrumpet]

Kyle posted a good approach to lathering SCS creams here. This the post Sue references on her site.

 

[ladyintheroom]

Hi

The weather has been very warm. Any chance it melted and rehardened?
Maybe a good stir will solve your problem. Sue does extensive quality control and makes a wonderful cream I am sure your problem can be solved.

J

 

[Emmett]

Hi

The weather has been very warm. Any chance it melted and rehardened?
Maybe a good stir will solve your problem. Sue does extensive quality control and makes a wonderful cream I am sure your problem can be solved.

J

The cream is rather hard, I suppose that's a possibility? I'll stir it up and see what that does.

 

[Sue]

Emmett,
I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with our shave cream.

This is how I make and check lather. Although I have several different brushes, I use a Tweezerman badger for testing.

Soak your brush in hot water in a mug.

Place a dallop of cream in another mug.

Remove the soaking brush and allow the water to stream out, bristles down.

When the stream of water begins to 'drip', give it only one good shake of the wrist (like shaking down mercury in a thermometer).

Swirl and pump the brush into the cream.

At first you will get 'bubbly' results. Keep stirring past the bubbles to thick meringue that is shiny.

SCS shave cream definately takes more stirring than commercially made SC. It's like it has to 'wake up' and it does take more effort.

Only add more drops of hot water after you have a thick lather.

You can also face lather as suggested. Hope this helps, if not please let me know.
Sue

 

[Emmett]

Emmett,
I'm sorry to hear you are having trouble with our shave cream.

This is how I make and check lather. Although I have several different brushes, I use a Tweezerman badger for testing.

Soak your brush in hot water in a mug.

Place a dallop of cream in another mug.

Remove the soaking brush and allow the water to stream out, bristles down.

When the stream of water begins to 'drip', give it only one good shake of the wrist (like shaking down mercury in a thermometer).

Swirl and pump the brush into the cream.

At first you will get 'bubbly' results. Keep stirring past the bubbles to thick meringue that is shiny.

SCS shave cream definately takes more stirring than commercially made SC. It's like it has to 'wake up' and it does take more effort.

Only add more drops of hot water after you have a thick lather.

You can also face lather as suggested. Hope this helps, if not please let me know.
Sue

Thanks so much, Sue. I had tried your Lime/Rose SC before and couldn't remember having problems so this was very frustrating. I'll do some more test batches today and post an update. And thanks to all who've commented with advice!

 

[auee1977]

Kyle posted a good approach to lathering SCS creams here. This the post Sue references on her site.

Thanks. I really needed that. Sue kindly sent me a sample of the shaving cream, unscented at my request, and I shaved with it today. I did not create a thick, rich or lubricating lather. Needless to say, it was a fairly rough shave and I used ASB with extra care. Now with these directions I will be increasing the amount of water and have high expectations.

 

[SmoovD]

Thanks. I really needed that. Sue kindly sent me a sample of the shaving cream, unscented at my request, and I shaved with it today. I did not create a thick, rich or lubricating lather. Needless to say, it was a fairly rough shave and I used ASB with extra care. Now with these directions I will be increasing the amount of water and have high expectations.

Her creams do take a fair bit of water. For SCS creams I dial back the amount of cream and increase the water. Otherwise I end up with enough lather for 8 passes.

 

[auee1977]

I tried again yesterday and created a good lather. The problem is with me. I like a thicker, less meringue type lather that I make with Bigelow and C&E Nomad. With these two creams contained in a tube I can make the kind of lather that gives me the right amount of slickness. Sue's SC works very well as intended but these types of creams are just not for me or maybe I am still not making it correctly.

 

[metzmo]

Many members have posted on this forum about the lathering qualities of the SCS creams. The trick for any cream is to dial in the lather by adding more water in small batches to get the proper consistency. Often, it will seem that your lather is too runny at the beginning of your work-up of the lather. I use a 1/4 tablespoon food measuring scoop to gradually add wather. When you feel resistance to your brush you are close to the proper consistency. You do not want a lather so heavy that the blade had to work against the lather. On the other hand, you don't want it too runny. As I get closer to the consistency that I want I check the consistency by squeezing out the brush into the lathering vessel. Rub your index finger and thumb together and see how it feels. If it needs more water, go for it. Don't be confused by any initial watery results. In most cases, a good product will require a tablespoon or more of water to get to your ideal consistency. This is true assumng that you shake out most of the excess water out of your brush. By the way, sorry I have been away so long. My life has been rather upside down this last year.

 

[Emmett]

Wanted to post an update:

I was so frustrated after making this post that I took a good week off from trying to lather Sue's creams and just came back to it yesterday. I did 4 test batches, two via Sue's instructions and two via Kyle's post, and it is still turning out runny and overaerated. It seems that I can't get past the point where the bubbles get smaller and the bowl starts to fluff up. I have two more things I want to try today--more stirring before I add any water, and using distilled water.

This is the first product, cream or soap, that I've had difficulty lathering, so I admit I'm flustered that I haven't gotten it yet (I did a small bowl of Speick yesterday after the SCS batches, just so I could end "practice" on a good note. Don't want to psych myself out about my lathermaking capability in general...) I'll make another update soon. Thank you to everyone who has chimed in to help. I'm gonna get this! Though, my sample soap disc lathers so nicely I might just end up ordering some soaps from Sue as well.

 

[mansquatch]

This is my two cents from a D/E rookie. My experience with creams is limited to TOBS Sandalwood as a point of reference. With the TOBS I was able to get a nice lather very quickly with minimum work. I had been reading reviews for the SCS and decided to give it a try. One thing I kept seeing people say is that the SCS cream is a water hog.

Upon arrival of my cream, and with the extra water advice in mind, I decided to whip up a bowl and "practice" as it were. Following the advice of adding water and such I ended up with three separate bowls of runny lather that I really would not want to shave with. I came back to the forums for review and actually stumbled across this thread. I followed the advice that Sue had previously posted and modified it a little.

1. I soaked my bowl and brush in hot water, emptied my mug of water and let it sit. The remaining water on the sides and bottom pooled, so like maybe a quarter teaspoon was left in the mug.

2. Let water naturally drip out of my brush as Sue mentioned, and gave the brush 1 light flick.

3. Used the nifty little spoon that came with my cream and portioned out a pecan (+) portion.

4. Begin swirling and pumping. This goes on for some time til lather perfection is achieved

5. End with shave awesomeness.

To me, all of the keep adding water stuff just didn't work. The water remaining in my mug and the water in my brush were sufficient to create an excellent lather that I could easily do 5 passes with. Of noting is that it DOES take a longer amount of time to achieve a good consistency, for me quite a bit more time. The results however, are more than worth it and the extra lathering time just adds to the overall shave experience, so this is not a bother to me.

Anyways, hope that helped anyone in this thread and any other newbies who stumble across this and are having difficulty getting a good lather from SCS creams.